Collaborative Research: Creating National Leadership Cohorts for Making Academic Change Happen

在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)教育界，人们一再呼吁改变学生的教育方式。商业和工业中的个人对变革过程的了解是熟悉的，但对于工程和计算机科学教员来说，这代表着一个新的舞台，他们设想在他们的校园里工程和计算机科学教育发生变化。在这个项目中，通过定制的使学术变革发生的课程，向教师介绍基于研究的变革战略的知识、技能和能力。该课程每年在革命化工程和计算机科学系(RED)项目调查员会议上讲授。会议结束后，教职员工每月通过辅导和每个红色队列中代表的变革领袖社区获得支持。本项目的研究部分使用观察、文件分析、电话采访和焦点小组来确定战略如何影响每个计划的变化项目的成败。此外，STEM教育领域国家变革领导者群体的形成扩大了已知从事变革实践的学者群体，并可为变革提供重要模式。STEM教育界缺乏系统性改革，这表明迄今所采取的改革办法存在一个重要问题。改革的目标是课程和课程层面，重点是教和学。该项目试图通过解决以下问题来解决这一具体问题：STEM教育中的变革极限能否通过关注个别变革推动者的技能和变革专长来克服？在这个项目中，在革命化工程和计算机科学部门(RED)调查人员会议上提供了让学术变革发生定制变革课程。三组红色获奖者的工作正在被跟踪，因为他们使用定制课程中提供的知识、技能和能力在自己的校园里实施变革。研究工作的智力价值在于通过观察、文件分析、访谈和焦点小组确定如何学习、应用变化知识、技能和能力，并为每个变化项目的成功做出贡献。研究问题如下：1.红色获奖者在项目开始时拥有哪些变革管理的基线技能？2.工程教育变革项目领导人成功的特质/组成部分/特征？3.马赫课程如何支持变革领导者的变革能力？4.变革推动者如何赋权利益相关者发展共同的变革愿景？5.广义的内容如何影响创造和维持变革的能力？该项目的更广泛影响在于创建一个全国工程和计算机科学教育变革领导队列。通过扩大已知从事变革实践的学者群体，工程和计算机科学界受益于变革模型(在该项目产生的案例研究中描述)和对个人影响变革的机构的更多了解。

Within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education community, there are repeated calls for changing the way students are educated. Knowledge of change processes are familiar to individuals in business and industry, but represent new arenas for engineering and computer science faculty who envision change in engineering and computer science education on their campuses. In this project, faculty are introduced to the knowledge, skills, and abilities of research-based change strategies through the customized Making Academic Change Happen Curriculum. This curriculum is delivered annually at the Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (RED) Program Investigator Meeting. After the meeting, faculty receive monthly support through coaching and through the community of change leaders represented in each RED cohort. The research part of this project uses observations, document analysis, phone interviews and focus groups to determine how the strategies impact the success or failure of each planned change project. In addition, the formation of a national cohort of change leaders in STEM education enlarges the community of scholars known to be engaged in change practices and can provide important models for change. The lack of systemic change within the STEM education community points to an important problem with the approach to change that has been pursued thus far. Change has been targeted at the course and curriculum levels, focusing on teaching and learning. The project seeks to address this specific problem by addressing the following question: Can the limits of change in STEM education be overcome by focusing on the individual change agents in terms of their skills and change expertise?In this project, the Making Academic Change Happen customized change curriculum is being offered at the Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (RED) Investigators Meeting. The work of three cohorts of RED recipients is being tracked as they use the knowledge, skills, and abilities offered in the customized curriculum to enact change on their own campuses. The intellectual merit of the research work lies in determining - through observation, document analysis, interviews, and focus groups - how change knowledge, skills, and abilities are learned, applied, and contribute to the success of each change project. The research questions addressed are as follows:1. What are the baseline skills in change management that RED recipients possess at the start of their projects?2. What traits/components/characteristics contribute to the success of engineering education change project leaders?3. How does the MACH curriculum support a change leader's ability to make change?4. How do change agents empower stakeholders to develop a shared vision for change?5. How does contents, broadly defined, affect the ability to create and sustain change?The broader impact of this project lies in the creation of a national leadership cohort for change in engineering and computer science education. By enlarging the community of scholars known to be engaged in change practices, the engineering and computer science communities benefit from models for change (described in the case studies produced by the project) and increased understanding of an individual's agency to affect change.